BTM_Pix

Will do. Just let me finish prototyping this interactive picture profile creation tweaker

"Ex Demo" used to be a common way in the UK to get round manufacturer's price controls preventing you from advertising products at discounted prices. When I used to sell recording studio equipment many, many years ago, products would mysteriously go out of stock from the manufacturer if you were advertising below list price. It was completely illegal for them to force price fixing in that way of course but the law didn't stop them being out of stock or giving you a trade discount of 0% if they felt like it, so it was de-facto price control. All of our magazine ads mainly featured an 'Ex Demo' sale list with discounted prices for the products that we weren't allowed to advertise at discount prices. These 'Ex Demo' product prices were, conveniently, exactly the same discounted price we'd sell you a brand new one at if you visited us at the office. So, customers would ring up and go : "I'm ringing about the ex-demo Lexicon PCM70 you've got advertised. Do you still have it?" To which we'd reply. "Hang on, I'll just check.......(on hold to pretend we were looking even though we knew there was no such ex-demo one).....Awww,no..I'm sorry it went this morning....I tell you what though, if you want one, we've got a couple of brand new ones that a customer has cancelled an order for, I'll do you one of those for the same price if you like?" At which point your hand would be bitten off, the customer got a great deal, we had a happy customer who loved our generosity and fairness and we and the manufacturers could live happily in the illusion of no one ever advertising a product below list price. I think some camera stores in the UK are using "Open Box" as being the new "Ex Demo". You knew were you stood with us if it said "Used" though so there was never any confusion. If we ever advertised something as "Used" there was a good chance it had rust on it.

Yeah, I was very interested in how much faith could be put in them if you wanted to really expose to the right and have them set at 100. And my takeaway is that they can largely be relied on if you want to push that far. It was also interesting, for me at least (!), to see the interaction between the profiles and the levels at the same exposure settings. Considering how coarse the histogram display is then this is a good thing What I've seen here might form the basis of a bit more testing for me at some point actually to look at the relationship with the profile, the contrast parameter within it and the additional global shadow and highlight adjusters in the camera. I think there is possibly some scope there to create profiles that incorporate all those parameters into single combination packages to create potentially finished OOC looks that I could make be deployed with a single button press. There might actually be combinations of these parameters that you'd maybe describe as non-intuitive that you look at the actual image its producing and think "You know what, that shouldn't work but I like the way that that looks". With analog synths for example, you pushed and prodded at the controls because they were there in front of you rather than having to deliberately go into menus and find them like you did with digital synths. It brought about happy accidents (as well as absolute abominations of noise) and I think it could be the same with these cameras. Its too fiddly to go in and change things in them through the menus so you become so methodical that you seldom create combinations that might just be really interesting. If all those parameters are laid out in front of you for you to twiddle with and you can see the live results of them (because you don't have to go in and out of menus) then I think that might happen. You'll probably end up with lots of rubbish but might just pan some gold. I'm quite enthused about this now and I'm going off to hack together something to do it!

The very first prototype I did was not too dissimilar actually !

Just a slightly different aspect to this but I was curious about how accurate the zebras are and how useful the histogram is with these cameras so I did a little test with the G7. I set the zebras to 100 to flash the middle column where the colour checker is stuck on and framed it so the door was in shot to see the different shadow levels with different profiles. Ignore the completely deliberately blown out right third portion of wall and sky as this is for a completely different test ! So that you could see what the camera was actually doing (and more importantly what it was saying it was doing), I recorded the output with the overlays on into a Ninja Inferno and did 3 passes using Standard, Cinelike D and Natural profiles, altering the shutter speed to change the exposure to show where the zebras came on for each. Annoyingly, I can't record the scope overlays of the Ninja Inferno as it was interesting to monitor what the camera thought was 100 and what the Ninja Inferno did. The good news is that the zebras are pretty accurate (I checked at 80, 70 and 60 as well) and you can see that reflected in the scopes in these grabs in FCPX. You can also see that Cinelike D is reducing the peak and stretching other parts of the range compared to the same exposure using the different profiles (all profiles were set to 0 for every parameter so there is more to be had from tuning but that was outside of the scope if you pardon the pun of what I was doing. What I found interesting is how there was quite a coarse change in level between the exposure combination of ISO/SS and F stop that would trip the zebras and the closest one that wouldn't, with the level going from 100 to around 92-ish. Using a variable ND, I was able to slightly tune that between the cracks as it were to eek a bit more out but if you've got the precision to be turning an ND like that all the time then you'd be better off being a safe cracker. So, the takeaway for me from doing this is that the zebras are accurate enough to use at 100 if you want to really expose to the right and the histogram is, erm, a yellow graphic. Download link for the video file if anyone wants to have a look in their own NLE is here https://mega.nz/#!ZyYCgC6R!WTM3Nz2MXfSzKtwG0hPhOBAvSqNaOq4eOnIUycnPQ3I

I am currently checking out two controllers to use with it that I think will be the definitive ones for people to choose. There'll be an update with them next week so stay tuned !

Always think Flickr pools are a decent resource for lenses as you generally get thousands of examples to look at and they come from a very broad range of lighting conditions and subjects. And because the exif data is generally intact you can see what camera they were used with then you can see if they are tuned for their native cameras etc It won't give you that same degree of feedback regarding handling for things like AF or IS and so on like YouTube or Vimeo does but its a lot easier to have an overview based on multiple sources of its general optical performance. https://www.flickr.com/groups/mzd17mmf18/pool/

This video I thought showed it quite badly but who knows what his settings were so its difficult to tell. But having said that, the first video you see on YouTube when you search for the lens and adapter is Canon themselves demonstrating it at the broadcast show on a C100 so they don't seem to be shy about pushing it for the C100 so its definitely worth a demo of it as a combo to see if there maybe is some sorcery going on.

Not thus far but my work on it at least is suspended while I'm doing the hardware controller. We've got a lead with an old version of the app that had the 'free' VLOG glitch but needs someone with a GH4 with the old firmware before Panasonic shut the door on it to try and do some exploring to see if it could be applied to the G7. Priority list for what I'm up to is the hardware controller, followed by Cinelike D on LX100 and then after that I'll revisit VLOG if no one else has been looking at it. I don't think the extra bitrates are viable using this method.

EDIT However they're achieving it, its working pretty well on this video. I'd seen a few others where it was very noticeable but I suspect that what they were exhibiting was it not being set to f5.6 so it was stepping through its maximum apertures for each part of the range. It may make a bit of mechanical noise though from other comments I've read.

I don't have a Sony camera to test it with but does their smartphone app enable manual focus or touch AF with the A7xxx cameras? I might be able to do a version of my Panasonic wifi controller for it for gimbal use if it does.

Yes, you can save it to the custom picture profile but it is easy to overwrite it, meaning you would have to do the hack again which might not be convenient if you're out and about ! Safest thing to do IMO is do both and save it into one of the C registers.

My speculation is that they would manipulate the ISO (secretly ) briefly at the crossover points to smooth it out rather than you needing it be enabled but its just a guess as to how they could do it. But I'm basing that on how bad the phenomenon is on Fuji's wide zooms (and to a far less extent their tele ones) but perhaps its just fundamentally better on this Canon lens. If I come across one in a shop I'll let you know.

Such a coincidence that you mention this combo as I was only looking at it yesterday as I had no idea that that little adapter even existed. It looks like a great little product but I was curious about why it only supports one lens. From the B&H reviews that I looked at there were a couple that mentioned flicker but it doesnt make it clear in either whether it was because it really was changing aperture as they hadn't locked it at 5.6. They did say that the auto ISO counteracted it so maybe that's what Canon use in the demo video and sneakily smooth it out even if it is locked at 5.6 as they know where the transition points are coming? It would make sense if they did but wouldnt solve it for me as I want to put it on a non-Canon body!

Its definitely smoother but its still disruptive as you've got hands on to do the turning, which sounds like it would be a big issue for the application you're talking about. Depending on the filter there is also colour shift issues to be considered but its one of those things where there are plenty of reviews online so you you should be able to find one that suffers less from this. The version Aputure do of their Lens Regain with variable electronic ND looks like a great solution but it comes at a price at around $700. One potential way of giving you a different solution would be for you to lock your exposure put a fixed ND on which is strong enough for the brightest zone and and then ride the ISO for those exposure changes to effectively counteract it for darker zones. Unless you go too mad, there is enough wiggle room with ISO on most cameras to tolerate that without destroying the image. It will still be stepped so not as smooth as a variable ND but at least you know you won't be getting colour shifts etc. I know exactly the person that could offer you a small handheld solution to do that wirelessly .... If you look at this video from my controller yesterday, you can at least get an idea of how riding the ISO (or the aperture or shutter speed actually) would look. As I say, its stepped so nowhere near as smooth as a variable ND but its not too bad (and could be smoothed further quite easily in post). Ignore the fact its running on a gamepad type controller as that sort of function can easily just be put on a tiny controller with a few buttons on to do what you want.

Its a Sony one. Does more then the arduino one but with poorer colours.

Yes and yes.

And in today's episode of "Fun With Lumix And Gaffer Tape" we have the new LCD display module which gives you a pro SLR style top panel info for your little GX80/G7 et al. Well, pro style if Nikon and Canon used more gaffer tape in their production process that is.

Always amazes me too. Just looking at numbeo.com comparing prices of goods where I live compared to Sweden and according to that I reckon me an Mattias could have a mutually beneficial arrangement if he gets gear for me there and I pay him in beer, tomatoes, oranges, petrol, Levis or men's leather business shoes.

I didn't say he did, to be fair. It was the OP himself who said he needed it and thats why he bought the BMPCC. Was just saying there was a way for him to preserve that and help him with his focus with the setup he already had that he was struggling with rather than having to throw the baby out with the bath water as it were. ** EDIT *** Hang on, it looks like thats exactly what I said wasn't it! Haha I meant to say 'It sounds like RAW is what you want' rather than 'what you need'.

If you've got the Zoom to do external audio anyway @Chris Oh then the GX85 with the Cinelike D hack would edge it for me over the G7. With the hack and the external audio you've matched what the G7 has the edge with and gained what it can't do which is the IBIS.

If only there was some way to have bigger and more buttons to control it with

If you're happy with the image quality of the BMPCC (sounds like RAW is certainly what you need for what you're doing) and that Sigma is an EF Mount have you considered part-exing the Metabones for the newer versions which support AF and IS? Doesn't tick all of your boxes still but will get you the focus issue out of the way and for probably only about £400 difference. If youre looking for something relatively hassle free to tick some of those other boxes then you could do a lot worse than something like the Sony RX100 Mark V or the Panasonic FZ2000/2500. Neither are stellar low light performers but are a good combination of easy decent results but with offering more tweakable options like LOG when you want to delve a bit deeper. Nothing wrong with good all auto stuff if it keeps you motivated to keep shooting as its so easy to get deflated as you've found with the BMPCC. A total spend of probably £1300 then will give your BMPCC a new lease of life (and it IS worth hanging in there with) for the RAW stuff you want to do and an additional camera with a bunch of tricks for other stuff and hidden depths that you can grow into if you like.

Another little update video that might be of interest to LX100 owners (and those with cameras like FZ1000/2000 etc) which shows the wifi controller operating the zoom and focus. The zoom controls on all the Lumix cameras are quite clunky in transition so its limited by their inherent performance so better suited to re-framing than any ambitious slow creeps.

FWIW, I regularly have to shoot stills at ISO5000 and the Fuji's haven't scared me off from that point of view. They don't have the bordering on night vision levels of the A7S etc but they're competitive enough at 'normal' high ISO levels.